Valerie Berg

Publication Date

1-1-2011

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Mayer, Jamie F.

Degree Name

B.S. (Bachelor of Science)

Legacy Department

School of Allied Health and Communicative Disorders

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare two treatment protocols, script reading (Holland, 2010) versus a novel intervention protocol, scenario training, for an individual with severe aphasia. A single-subject, multiple-baseline-across behaviors, alternating treatment design was used to determine which treatment protocol would engender the most improvement in functional expressive language. Typically, the most difficult aspect of aphasia treatment protocols - especially for those with severe aphasia - is generalization of treatment gains outside of the therapy room. Therefore, we designed scenario training to increase contextual relevance and hence generalization by rehearsing linguistic, motoric, cognitive aspects of particular situations. We trained sequentially the language for three functional tasks using both script and scenario protocols, with the protocols alternated across weekly treatment sessions. Although our initial hypothesis was that the richer context of scenario training would promote increased generalization compared to script reading, we found that both treatment protocols yielded similar degrees of improvement. Qualitative analysis of our data yielded an order effect in that script training appeared most beneficial when it preceded scenario training, but not vice versa. Continued exploration of our treatment protocol is warranted to evaluate optimal dosage and task content. Similar to previous treatment studies for severe aphasia, our protocols yielded improved expressive language in treated tasks for our participant but failed to trigger generalization to additional, untreated contexts. This study reinforces the need for functional, meaningful treatment protocols to best serve individuals with severe aphasia.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references.

Extent

26 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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